Commando Raids on ISIS Yield Vital Data in Shadowy War
After months of waiting for an opportunity to seize Mr. Uzbeki without putting civilians at risk, one arose on April 6 for the so-called expeditionary
targeting force, a group of commandos from the secretive Joint Special Operations Command who hunt Islamic State leaders in Iraq and Syria.
The associate, Abdurakhmon Uzbeki, was a rare prize whom United States Special Operations forces had been tracking for months: a midlevel
but highly trusted operative skilled in raising money; spiriting insurgent leaders out of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s besieged capital in Syria; and plotting attacks against the West.
Cellphones and other material swept up by Special Operations forces proved valuable for future raids, though the missions fell short of their goal to capture,
not kill, terrorist leaders in order to obtain fresh, firsthand information about the inner circle and war council of the group, also known as ISIS.
In a similar raid in early January, American commandos killed another midlevel Islamic State leader they had been trying to capture
and interrogate in the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zour, which is largely under Islamic State control.
Mr. Uzbeki, a combat-hardened veteran of shadow wars in Syria
and Pakistan, died in the gun battle, thwarting the military’s hopes of extracting from him any information about Islamic State operations, leaders and strategy.
